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[Akoto]

Hello!

I've been trying to get into adventurer mode with certain goals (eventually becoming a godslayer of megabeasts, conquerer of Hell, so on and so forth!), but I'm finding myself humbled by my attempts to start up. I've tried humans, dwarves, elephant men, elephant seal men, brown recluse men, giant turtle men. In the case of some, I even cheated and provided them with adamantine weapons or armor (wish I could cheat on their stats a bit). Even so, they've all died quickly, mostly to boogeymen! The dwarf lasted the longest, and even took out several boogeymen before falling. The elephant seal man died the fastest, killed again by boogeymen while sleeping - never struck a single blow in his career.

I've been trying to get these adventurers to one of two necromancer towers in the world, so that I might gain my first bit of higher power! I never make it through the wilderness, though. So, I present the experts with this challenge: help me to build an adventurer who's powerful as can be and ready to get out there in the world! I need help with:

1. Choice of race.
2. Attribute ratings.
3. Skill ratings.
4. Anything else you think is important!

Still open to cheating or modding if it makes things more feasible and fun. Whoever presents the most interesting choice, I'll promise to keep up with a story thread detailing my adventures!

[mikekchar]

I don't want to discourage you, but I think you are taking the wrong approach.  DF adventure mode is less about stats and equipment and more about your own ability, in my experience.  Read the kisat dur thread: http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=148015.0.  That is virtually all you need.

A couple of piece of advice:

- At the beginning of the game never travel alone unless you know 100% for sure that you will make it to a non-abandoned city by nightfall.  If you are starting as a peasant, that means you need to work out of a base city and just do day trips.

- Do *not* start by following quests.  Go hunting for normal animals until you get good at fighting (both you and your character).

- Train and equip companions.  When you get companions, make a point of trying to secure good equipment for them.  This will greatly increase their survivability.  Also, pick level appropriate opponents so that they can level up.  Picking up drunks in the bar means doing a lot of hunting.  If you get some decent people from the military (after your reputation increases), you can go after harder opponents.  Companions are very, very useful for providing distractions to powerful enemies.  Every time the enemy targets your companion, they are not targeting you.

- Perfect kisat dur.  My advice is to start out with no weapon so that you can learn kisat dur.  Keep your large dagger strapped to you, though.  It is easy to disable opponents with kisat dur, but at first it will be hard to kill them.  Usually I keep the dagger for slicing up my opponents after I have arguably one the fight so that they bleed out quickly.

There are advantages for having a large body with kisat dur because you can wrestle larger opponents and your punches will have more effect.  However, I think as a way of getting better at the game, it is more instructive to use normal sized (dwarf, elf, human) adventurers.  This way you can get your defence going.

- Find a wooden shield and carry it.  You will need it for dragons.  Do not wear metal armour when fighting dragons.  Again, without kisat dur, you will be dead.

- Boogey men are arguably weak, but they are very fast.  If you have very good speed and defence, you can make quick work of them because they are small.  I tend not to take the chance, though.  Still... once you feel that you are practically invincible, they might be a good test.

Having said all that, if you are aiming at a pure fighter, I would prioritise agility, strength and recuperation.  Willpower allows you to continue fighting when you are in pain, rather than going unconscious (and dying).  I tend to not bother with it, though.  If I have made a mistake to that degree, then death is a fitting punishment ;-)

For kisat dur, having observation makes life a *lot* easier, so I would pump it.  If you don't mind grinding by doing some hunting, you actually don't need *any* other fighting skill.  It will come with time.  Starting with some dodging is useful.  I find that I don't dodge very often, so I don't level it very quickly.  Fighting will level quite quickly by itself, so it's better to put starting points in striking (or if you insist on using a weapon, whatever weapon you are using).  If you get above competent (I believe) in a weapon, you can also parry with that weapon, which is quite useful (especially if you have a free hand for grabbing things).  Shield is worth some points because a shield is useful against ranged weapons (and dragon fire...).  It is also very useful for bashing zombies because unless you are huge, your fists probably will not cut it.

If you decide to use a weapon, I would go for warhammer.  This allows you to fight zombies effectively.  Again, apart from trying to level it occasionally, I would have it strapped to my back.  Possibly you can brain unconscious opponents instead of bleeding them out with your dagger.

Finally, leather armour is useful.  Metal armour is great for your companions, but less so for you because it will slow you down (and you mostly don't need it).  The only times I want metal armour is when I am fighting say 5-6 archers at the same time.  There is just no way to block all of those arrows and some will get through before you can disable them.  My advice is to run away if you get into that situation.

I think that's all the advice I have.  Remember to start with easy opponents and work your way up.  If your adventurer gets any injury at all, consider it a big mistake on your part and trying to figure out how to avoid it in the future.  Good luck!

[Rumrusher]

Hello!

I've been trying to get into adventurer mode with certain goals (eventually becoming a godslayer of megabeasts, conquerer of Hell, so on and so forth!), but I'm finding myself humbled by my attempts to start up. I've tried humans, dwarves, elephant men, elephant seal men, brown recluse men, giant turtle men. In the case of some, I even cheated and provided them with adamantine weapons or armor (wish I could cheat on their stats a bit). Even so, they've all died quickly, mostly to boogeymen! The dwarf lasted the longest, and even took out several boogeymen before falling. The elephant seal man died the fastest, killed again by boogeymen while sleeping - never struck a single blow in his career.

I've been trying to get these adventurers to one of two necromancer towers in the world, so that I might gain my first bit of higher power! I never make it through the wilderness, though. So, I present the experts with this challenge: help me to build an adventurer who's powerful as can be and ready to get out there in the world! I need help with:

1. Choice of race.
2. Attribute ratings.
3. Skill ratings.
4. Anything else you think is important!

Still open to cheating or modding if it makes things more feasible and fun. Whoever presents the most interesting choice, I'll promise to keep up with a story thread detailing my adventures!

hmm uhh most this seems to be just skill than build, as for modding wise a wizard that can transform and mess with enemies from afar and make the dead minions would be powerful, or just make a wagon playable and go around never having to worry about being hurt outside of...fire, and archery
though being one probably won' hit conqueror of hell as of now hell has no order or ruler and the only person I known who got far enough into conquering it was Max, who built a throneroom in a magma sea who only foes on his level was water, ice, and magma and Obsideon.

like out of modding, stealth attacks have a 100% aim boost and lands, and spider-people are safe around bogeymen if you don't hit them.
building roofs and dumping points into barding so you can recruit someone who isn't a drunk is okay.
but yeah getting to hell is based on map layout and if the spire is lucky enough to send you there, or you can just go to fort mode and dig your way there.

i say murdering all the megabeasts while doable is a long trek of searching for them

fakeedit : yeah mikekchar has the idea DF adventure mode isn't about items or how highly skilled your adventurer is more so your own knowledge of how the game works.

[Akoto]

Yikes. Look for some effective or interesting character ideas, get lectured into the ground.

Given the frequent combat, the swift deaths, difficulties interacting with the environment, so on? I doubt there are no attribute/skill/race choices which have meaning and are more effective than others.

[peasant cretin]

Given both threads, I'd suggest that you powerlevel/grind. Powerleveling will get attributes/skills into the super(human?)/legendary stat range.

The suggestion is play human demigod, as demigods get the most character points, and humans have the best access to armor.. Drop most of your points into shield/dodge/observer, with swimmer at novice. Regarding the attributes, I'd raise endurance/agility to superior, with strength/toughness/willpower set to high. The reasoning for superior endurance for a grinded character is she/he will never get tired once at super(human/dwarven/elven) and you can pretty much auto-attack quite freely.

You need maybe 2-3 shields and wear full armor when you start. It's preferred that you start in a warm/hot climate so if you end up using fish to grind, you can do so without being concerned the waterway will freeze. The creature you're looking for will be any small wilderness critter. Whatever creature you choose, it should be small enough so it cannot break your grip:
1. You'll need to set your combat preferences at first to close combat/stand ground/stand ground.
2. You'll sneak toward them and move to an adjacent tile, then choose shift +A to attack them. This you'll need to do since the game may assume you're friendly to animals. The game will ask if you really want to attack. You'll select (Y)es.
3. Directionally move into them. Hopefully you'll grab them at first attempt. If not repeat steps 2 and 3.
4. Once you've grab the critter, switch your combat preferences to strike/stand ground/stand ground. Now, directionally move into them. This should make them hostile if they weren't already.
5. Press the period key. The result here is they will attack you and you will defend.
6. You'll now create a macro. You'll press control + r to start recording the macro. Now you'll press the period key say 10 times, followed by control + r to end the recording.
7. Now to play the macro, you'll press control + U. A # will appear and here you'll enter 99 (any number works up to 99). This is how many times the macro will repeat itself. In this case it's 99X10. Now you'll press control + P to play.
8. You are now in the grinding/powerleveling loop. Repeat as desired to improve your stats.

You should be about to auto-attack and walk through almost any creature, except for those with web/fire/dust. Powerleveling will make you stronger that almost anything and much of the trouble you experienced at the beginning will be over.

The argument that I'd use against powerleveling is that while you can achieve your goals, you'll know very little about how the combat system works. It is possible to reverse engineer what's going on of course. Despite powerleveling, you may on occasion die unexpectedly as many of the important things that keep people alive are learned by not grinding, but by playing slowly and by paying attention to the little things.

This isn't meant to be a lecture, just giving you the options and how your choice will affect what you know/can do. Hope this is helpful.

[mikekchar]

Sorry!  Not trying to lecture.  Really trying to help you be successful in what I thought you were trying to achieve.  Not sure what to say other than my own experience is that no matter what I do, if I'm not taking a tactical approach I just end up dying randomly.  Some duck hits you in the head, you go unconscious, you're dead.  Next game you wear a helmet.  Some fish stuns you, you drown, you're dead.  Next game you stay away from rivers.  Some goblin fires an arrow into your foot.  You fall over.  You are a pincusion.  You're dead.  Next time you max dodging and wear 20 shields.  Some kobold is 20x faster than you, slashes your throat with a dagger.  You're dead.

peasant cretin's power leveling advice is really good, but I still think you won't be able to consistently knock down the more difficult monsters in the game with that approach.  Someone will get a lucky shot in and you will be dead in 2 seconds.  I honestly can't think of a way to prevent it with items, levels or cheats.  It's just not that kind of game.

Having said that, can you grab things while flying?  If you were a peregrin falcon man, fly at max speed, grab someone's trousers and send them flying, it might work very, very well against most opponents.  Haven't tried it, though.

[Beesarewatchingyou]

If becoming as broken as possible with a low risk of dying is what you want,  I've got a few suggestions. Yeah there's always a risk of some random death no matter what you do, but the below things should help you brute force your way through probability.

1) Gigantic animal men like elephant man, elephant seal man and giraffe man. Your seal man didn't get to show off his potential. Ok you can't wear armour, but that'll only be a problem right at the beginning in my experience. After that, if you become a vampire and get some good skills it's very unlikely that anything will hit you at all. If it does, your thick skin and thick clothing is surprisingly protective. You'll have a higher risk of dying at the beginning but a much better chance of surviving once you start fighting megabeasts and such. You can do ridiculous stuff, I remember my elephant seal man would propel humans about 7 tiles away by punching them. He once killed a yeti instantly with a punch to the head. If you're a big animal man then you don't need to worry too much about companions except as a tool for keeping bogeymen away. They're also useful as meatshields of course. 

2) As for attributes, demigod with superior strength/willpower/agility probably gives you the best chance of surviving early on.

3) I'd recommend trying a skilled lasher. In particular, if you can find a silver whip then you can really cause some carnage. It's not unusual to oneshot dragons, demons etc in the first turn of combat by just whipping them in the head. You can also kill a bronze colossus pretty easily by just lashing it in the upper body like 10 times. You're likely to find silver whips in hamlets, in the keep where the lords and ladies live. They're just lying around on the floor with all sorts of other items, nobody cares if you take them. They're fantastic weapons for any stage of the game.

Good dodger and shield user skills are essential. I like to start out with novice reader (for necromancer books) and novice swimmer (would rather not spend much time learning it) too if I'm rolling a demigod.

4) Also, here's a neat trick if you want steel equipment really early: at night, explore the drinking mounds in dwarven hillocks and visit dwarven fortresses. Sometimes you'll see sleeping dwarf soldiers decked out in steel armour and weapons. You can use wrestling to grapple their equipment and then steal it from them with I. Stealing equipment is also very useful during fights. If you can steal a hammerlord's hammer, you've already won the fight.

Becoming a vampire early will do wonders. If possible, visit important places like keeps and big towns. Look out for anyone who's blinking blue. If you look at someone and they're wearing jewelry made of sentient beings then there's a good chance they're a vampire, and calling them out through dialogue will let you get some of their blood to drink. If possible, let companions do most of the fighting here since a vampire could give you an adventurer-ruining injury early on. A safer way is to go to a temple and start pushing statues over, but there's a chance of becoming a werebeast instead. (which can also be overpowered in its own way, especially if you get a huge form like weremammoth or weregiraffe)

Once you're a vampire, you can just walk into necromancer towers unopposed and read all their books.

I sometimes turn bogeymen off in world gen (advanced params, number of bogeyman types:0) if I feel like travelling alone, but if you're leaving them on then make sure you always have travelling companions.

Powerlevelling is nice if you have the patience. I tend not to do it, since no matter how well prepared you are there's always a chance they'll get a lucky hit and instakill you. Since dwarf fortress is evil, chances are it'll be after you just spent an hour powerlevelling. I once had an adventurer who could easily kill hydras 1v1 without a bruise but died to a dingo. It managed to scratch him in the lower body and geld him through his steel greaves. It often happens, especially with characters who rely on armour in my experience. (the bogeyman punches you in the neck through your steel chain shirt, fracturing the upper spine's bone! You lose hold of the steel battle axe! You lose hold of the steel shield! Etc)

Hope the above stuff helps you to enjoy adventure mode!

[Rumrusher]

oh and spider-folk are friendly to bogeymen but can't swim so if you want to have a legion of night creatures that will target everyone but you unless you hit them, playing spider is a good option also they have web immunity.

[Akoto]

I did discover that my spidery adventurer was non-aggressive with boogeymen! Unfortunately, their presence still prevents sleeping or fast travel. That particular character died in a fight with something or other, despite wielding an adamantine two-handed sword and a couple of adamantine short swords all at once.

The peregrine falcon man idea is an interesting one! I'll see if I can grab someone, fly up, and drop them to the ground. Fun idea. Will try the lasher, too! My elephant seal and elephant man characters both started with good bite skill, since I'd read people had good results there, but didn't apply it well. They could never land a punch, either. The spider and snake men (tried a black mamba man) were good biters, but their venom acted too slowly.

Is adamantine inferior in adventure mode? I notice more people talking about silver or platinum weapons, generally.

[Beesarewatchingyou]

I did discover that my spidery adventurer was non-aggressive with boogeymen! Unfortunately, their presence still prevents sleeping or fast travel. That particular character died in a fight with something or other, despite wielding an adamantine two-handed sword and a couple of adamantine short swords all at once.

The peregrine falcon man idea is an interesting one! I'll see if I can grab someone, fly up, and drop them to the ground. Fun idea. Will try the lasher, too! My elephant seal and elephant man characters both started with good bite skill, since I'd read people had good results there, but didn't apply it well. They could never land a punch, either. The spider and snake men (tried a black mamba man) were good biters, but their venom acted too slowly.

Is adamantine inferior in adventure mode? I notice more people talking about silver or platinum weapons, generally.

It's the same as fortress mode. Adamantine is very good for edged weapons but bad for blunt, while silver is the other way around. 

I prefer blunt for adventure. I try to keep a whip in my backpack even if I'm mainly using an edged weapon, since there are certain kinds of enemies who cause trouble for edged weapons. (Metal enemies, giant monsters with really thick clothes, stuff with poisonous blood)

Biting isn't that practical against megabeasts and stuff but it can be hilarious to mess around with! Elephant seal men can straight up bite people's heads off.

Oh yeah and if you're a flying animal man, you can try flying really high above people and dropping heavy items on them . Not very practical but it can be pretty funny if you actually manage to hit someone with a minecart.

With the spider-men, holding 5 shields can be pretty funny. Also shockingly good. I've also heard you can pick up webs off the ground and toss them at people, since you're web immune.

[SebasMarolo]

Is adamantine inferior in adventure mode? I notice more people talking about silver or platinum weapons, generally.

When it comes to blunt weapons, yeah. Lets do a thinking exercise:

A goblin Vs. a dwarf. Both unarmoured. The goblin has a silver warhammer, the dwarf a steel shortsword. If the goblin lands a blow somewhere, the part can get crushed, but takes a while for something to pass out. If the dwarf hits somewhere, the goblin can kiss that limb goodbye, or get faint from bloodloss.

Now give 'em armour. The warhammer can still break bones. The sword's cutting power gets blunted, and it doesn't have enough weight to perform as well as it does against an unarmoured foe.

[Akoto]

Well, I'm taking one of the ideas suggested and seeing how long it lasts. The new world I created unfortunately has neither giant elephant seal men, nor elephant men. As such, I chose a species living very close to a necromancer's tower... A penguin woman! Oma wields a whip and will probably die fast, but at least she's suited to the weather!

I wonder if penguin men get any special abilities. We shall see.

[Rumrusher]

I did discover that my spidery adventurer was non-aggressive with boogeymen! Unfortunately, their presence still prevents sleeping or fast travel. That particular character died in a fight with something or other, despite wielding an adamantine two-handed sword and a couple of adamantine short swords all at once.

The peregrine falcon man idea is an interesting one! I'll see if I can grab someone, fly up, and drop them to the ground. Fun idea. Will try the lasher, too! My elephant seal and elephant man characters both started with good bite skill, since I'd read people had good results there, but didn't apply it well. They could never land a punch, either. The spider and snake men (tried a black mamba man) were good biters, but their venom acted too slowly.

Is adamantine inferior in adventure mode? I notice more people talking about silver or platinum weapons, generally.

It's the same as fortress mode. Adamantine is very good for edged weapons but bad for blunt, while silver is the other way around. 

I prefer blunt for adventure. I try to keep a whip in my backpack even if I'm mainly using an edged weapon, since there are certain kinds of enemies who cause trouble for edged weapons. (Metal enemies, giant monsters with really thick clothes, stuff with poisonous blood)

Biting isn't that practical against megabeasts and stuff but it can be hilarious to mess around with! Elephant seal men can straight up bite people's heads off.

Oh yeah and if you're a flying animal man, you can try flying really high above people and dropping heavy items on them . Not very practical but it can be pretty funny if you actually manage to hit someone with a minecart.

With the spider-men, holding 5 shields can be pretty funny. Also shockingly good. I've also heard you can pick up webs off the ground and toss them at people, since you're web immune.

the key is to pick up the web and autoput it into your backpack normally picking up the web will turn it into thread which means needing to fill all 6 hands with something to pull that off.
and while it works you can't travel with webs in your backpack so it's limited to the area. that said if you happen to capture enough spiders to make webbing.
I say just mod in webspinning into one of the spiderfolks probably brown recluse as they are known to somewhat spit silk (just not enough) and coast through getting a free hit on folks until you find someone who can break free in 3 ticks.

[Akoto]

I have quickly learned that penguin men may have a swimming bonus (haven't tested yet, but suspect), and I have most certainly confirmed that they take their time walking. Oma is apparently waddling her way into legend.

Her first accomplishment was to topple a bronze statue in her home city's temple, causing her to be cursed by Lasiv Begunbudded! So, she is now some manner of evil penguin, but I'm not sure how to check whether she's a vampire or a werebeast. Any hints? Either way, a terrible penguin queen has emerged into the world!

[Akoto]

The mystery has been solved! Oma is a mighty penguin vampiress! I figured that out by having her drink the blood of a goblin she'd given a sound beating to with her scourge.

I'm wondering if an adamantine whip would be better than an adamantine scourge, though, or a metal other than adamantine. My attacks are mostly doing bruising damage through armor that isn't particularly heavy. Got the job done against these goblins in the quest, but slowly!

Then again, it may be because I'm a penguin.